Pink tax causes financial pain

In light of Women’s Month, Sanlam commissioned ImagineNATION Alliance research house to conduct a survey with a sample of 1 000 – 500 men, 500 women – to delve more deeply into pink tax in SA.

Whereas 93,4% of the women polled said they spend over R100 on monthly toiletries, only 76% of men do. More than 30% of women reported spending R1 500-plus annually on medical screening, with the figure for men being just 16%.

Code for Africa, a gender pay gap tool based on the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Gender Gap Report, found that South African men earn an average of R6 607,25 pm more than women. This equates to the sixth-largest pay gap in Africa. The research identifies multiple factors behind this, including the fact that women tend to work in industries with lower average pay and have childcare commitments.